Story of Oprah Winfrey

American television host, actress, producer, philanthropist and entrepreneur Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She belongs to a small farming community, where she was sexually abused by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother. she moved to Nashville to live with her father, Vernon who is a barber and businessman. She Entered Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville.

In 1976, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the TV chat show ‘People Are Talking’. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight years. After which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, ‘A.M. Chicago’. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue.Within several months, Winfrey’s open and warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings.Her success led to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film ‘The Color Purple’, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She launched the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. Soon she gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions. Although ratings initially fell, she earned the respect of her viewers and was soon rewarded with an upsurge in popularity.

Her projects with Harpo have included the highly rated 1989 TV mini series, ‘The Women of Brewster Place’, which she also starred in. Winfrey also signed a multi-picture contract with Disney.

Her weight loss efforts as for her talk show, lost an estimated 90 pounds and competed in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., in 1995. In the wake of her highly publicized success, Winfrey’s personal chef, Rosie Daley, and trainer, Bob Greene, both published best-selling books. In the wake of her highly publicized success, Winfrey’s personal chef, Rosie Daley, and trainer, Bob Greene, both published best-selling books. With the debut in 1999 of Oxygen Media, a company she co-founded that is dedicated to producing cable and Internet programming for women. In 2005, Winfrey helped give ‘The Color Purple’ a new life on stage.

In 2009, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be ending her program when her contract with ABC ended, in 2011. Soon after, she moved to her own network, the ‘Oprah Winfrey Network’, a joint venture with Discovery Communications.

The network made headlines in January 2013, when it aired an interview between Winfrey and Lance Armstong, the American cyclist. During the interview, Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing substances throughout his cycling career, including the hormones cortisone, testosterone and erythropoietin. “I am deeply flawed … and I’m paying the price for it, and I think that’s okay. I deserve this,” he stated. The interview reportedly brought in millions of dollars in revenue for OWN.

In March 2015, Winfrey announced that her Chicago-based Harpo Studios would close at the end of the year to consolidate the company’s production operations to the Los Angeles-based OWN headquarters. Winfrey returned to acting in Greenleaf, which marked her first recurring scripted television role. The original family drama revolves around a Memphis mega-church and premiered on OWN in June 2016.

According to Forbes magazine, Oprah was the richest African American of the 20th century and the world’s only Black billionaire for three years running. Oprah’s Angel Network has raised more than $51,000,000 for charitable programs, including girls’ education in South Africa and relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Oprah Winfrey has an estimated net worth of $2.9 billion as of November 2016 according to Forbes.

The Author

Armita Rout

A creative graphic designer by profession, Armita’s ambition is to explore the world of Visualisation and expressions through her unique infographics and other creative artworks. She believes a story best conveyed through pictures.